Jane Hardwicke Collings

Jane Hardwicke Collings

Category

Blood Mysteries

What is it? Menstruation, conception, pregnancy, birth and menopause are shamanic experiences. These monumental life experiences are served well by this understanding. Shamanic Womancraft is the practice of facilitating this journey. So, “what’s Shamanic Womancraft” I shall explain shamanic and womancraft which is basically what the original meaning of the term midwifery is. Midwifery &…

What is the Earth Mother asking of us? The blueprint for women’s menstrual cycles is to be in synchrony with the moon, the lunar cycle. Women are ‘designed’ to ovulate with the full moon and bleed with the dark moon. For many centuries due to light pollution, diet and our modern life styles, lunar menstrual…

(Alarming) Information: At birth → Babies are born with plastic molecules in their blood that come to them from their mother’s exposure to them in her environment, including what she eats, breathes and absorbs, including via the plastic bag that contains any IV fluids the mother receives in labour. (Source) In childhood (and ongoingly) →…

Ecstatic means to stand outside oneself, to be in an other than usual state of consciousness. Spring 2013 The blueprint for childbirth – the hormonal design – is for an experience of an altered state of consciousness, that has as part of its condition, less or no pain. This blueprint includes a mind-space of total…

Presentation at the “Women and Depression Conference” Sydney 2007 Spring 2013 Our modern culture has forgotten to honour the Rites of Passage in a Woman’s life. In not doing this we miss the opportunity they provide of celebrating and welcoming the huge transformations that we go through at our menarche, childbirth and menopause. Honouring rites…

The Four Phase Feminine Way Spring 2013 When viewed as a whole, a Woman’s life is divided into 4 phases. These phases or seasons are related to and defined by the expression of her fertility and sexuality. Maiden – birth to childbirth Mother – childbirth to menopause Maga – menopause to retirement Crone – retirement to death With each…

Making Sense of Menstruation Spring 2013 There is so much more to the menstrual cycle than the biology lesson given to explain it, in the same way that there is so much more to sex and childbirth than the mechanics. The menstrual cycle is a cycle to base your life around, in fact your life…

What Is The Point? Spring 2013 My daughter, Ellie, seventeen at the time, came home from school one day telling me about a conversation that had happened in her art class. One of her friends asked the teacher about childbirth, “Does it really hurt?” She replied “I don’t know, epidural all the way for me.” Ellie,…

I think about Jeannine a lot, she’s one of my go-to’s when I don’t know what to do. I ask, “What would Jeannine do…?” I am so glad to be passing on her lineage through the school shamanic woman craft. At her deathbed, I promised to keep her work going. Her’s is the lineage of…

Dearest Midwives, Happy International Midwives Day! Firstly, and really importantly, I want to say thank you to all the midwives. I know what it takes! I also know what it takes to be the best midwife you can be, serving women rather than the institution. It is our responsibility as guardians of the birth process…

After Mother, before Crone… is the time of the Maga – the Matriarch, the Enchantress, the Harvest Queen! Winter 2015 As I sit here perched on this transformational ‘Altar of Womanhood,’ somewhere in the midst of becoming the next version of me, I feel I can now speak to Her as an initiate… My intention is…

(Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart or TuneIn) “What if we stopped resenting “that time of the month”, and started celebrating it? What if we quit dreading menopause, and started honouring the wisdom it brings? And what if we could shift our views on childbirth from being a clinical, painful experience, to a deeply empowering rite of passage, one that allows…

One of the popular articles I have ever written is the The Spiritual Practice of Menstruation. It featured on my very first website nearly 20 years ago that my dear Father created for me. Many women contact me after reading it, usually finding it on their hunt to understand what is going on for them with their…

“Jane is a no-holds-barred Priestess of powerful proportions, and her desire is for women to feel more deeply connected to the cycle of life through birth, menarche, pregnancy, menopause, decay and death. Today’s podcast is going to be of particular interest to you if you are a bleeding woman or one who is potentially going…

(For the purpose of introducing this concept, I will be using language including words like woman and man and pronouns like she, he, and we, and I will be referring to menstruation and menopause as the experience of a woman. My apologies if that upsets or disturbs anyone. My mission here is to introduce this needed concept…

On 7-9 December, over the Dark and then New Moon, I with five Sisters from the School of Shamanic Womancraft, Sequoia Krop Rachel Reed Jessie Johnson-Cash Marie-Louise Lapere & Judy Mort held the first With Woman Retreat for birth workers, in the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia. (The next one in Australia is planned for December 2019…

From one rite to the next… The connection between a woman’s experience of menarche and therefore what she takes with her to her experience of childbirth, is not often taken into account. Knowing of this inherent connection can enhance a woman’s attention to her life journey, as a whole, rather than simply her experience of…

I’m often asked what the origin story for the School of Shamanic Womancraft symbol is… So here it is! In 1992 after birthing my third baby, Jackson (my second HBAC – homebirth after caesarean section), I wrote a short story and drew a picture to describe where I went during the birthing process. Little did…

I’m just back from the Australian Goddess Conference held in Sydney this month, where I gave two presentations – following is an excerpt from the second one. * * * The Waratah Project is compiling its findings from the data collected from over 3500 women about their experiences of menarche, menstruation and menopause. We are in the…

I’m just back from the Australian Goddess Conference held in Sydney this month, where I gave two presentations – following is an excerpt from the first one. * * * The menstrual cycle as an ‘entity’ is screaming for attention…. Are we paying attention? The menstrual cycle is the ‘barometer of our wellbeing’, so what…